Innova release 5.8.1

The Innova 5.8.1 release provides Innova for FlexiTrim and Innova for Salmon Filleting.

Innova for FlexiTrim

FleXitrim is a trimming line that delivers fillets so that natural and filleting defects are manually removed before the fillet is weighed and released back into the process. It is suitable for untrimmed whitefish fillets.

In some lines, left and right fillet is separated so Innova always knows that even numbered stations receive the “right fillet” while odd numbered stations receive the “left fillet” coming from the filleting machine. This gives the possibility to better adjust the filleting machine, for example if it is filleting too narrow or too wide.

A particularly unique feature for FleXitrim is the automatic bone detection (QC) done by the FleXicut machine which reports back to Innova that it has found a bone/contaminant from a certain employee or station. This is registered as a QC inspection in Innova; the number of bones found and where they were found is recorded.

Another powerful unique feature is what we call heatmap. Each employee working on the station has a small terminal where Innova is showing performance information, including a picture of the fillet, showing where the FleXicut has found bones.

The heatmap shows density of bones detected in the left or right fillet, or both sides. On the terminal it is possible to see a heatmap of bones detected within the last X number of minutes using the configurable buttons on the screen. In Innova, it is possible to show the heatmap by employee and apply a number of filters.

The image above shows a fillet that contains bones and, as the day goes by, it colors the fillet with the frequency of how often it has detected bone and at what location on the fillet. So locations get more red as more bones are found.

This information tells the operator to focus on a specific area on the fillet. There is a higher possibility that bone is at that location. This also tells the supervisor that he needs to adjust the filleting machine, maybe the right side of the machine needs adjustment or the left side, depending upon where the bones are frequently detected.

The cross (x) on the image is telling the operator that is has detected bones at this location in the last X minutes where X is configured to certain intervals.

Innova for Salmon Filleting

Innova for Salmon Filleting provides complete equipment control and real time monitoring to improve the overall performance of your filleting line, whether you use all or just some of the machines available.

Depending on which machines and processes you use in your line, the workflow could be something like this:

The input to the filleting line is a gutted fish. The fish is placed in the deheader, which measures the fish and then uses a series of cuts to dehead the fish. It then cuts theshoulders to ensure optimum filleting and releases the fish to be measured for the tail cut. Finally, the tail is cut and the fish is released to the filleting machine.

The fish is automatically fed into filleting machine. The fish is measured to ensure optimum filleting performance. Optionally, the machine can cut back and belly trim.The fish is then filleted, resulting in two fillets (right and left). The center bone drops away onto a conveyor. Fillets continue down the line in 2 lanes.

The fillets move into a quality scanner where an imaging camera takes a picture and analyzes them visually and a standard vision camera is used to verify the profile of the fillets (length, width, height, volume, and gives an estimated weight.

The fillets continue down the line to the skinner where they are flipped and the skin is removed.

The fillets finally move to a second quality scanner where the skinned side is checked using an imaging camera that takes a picture and analyzes the fillet visually and a standard vision camera that verifies the profile of the skinned fillet (length, width, height, volume, and gives an estimated weight).

The fillets are now ready for further processing or automatic packing using RoboBatchers.

Data collected from the devices includes the following:

The deheader provides the number of gutted fish collected.

The filleting machine measures the difference of the belly height on both sides that indicates the quality of the gutting performance.

The QC Scanners provide fillet quality measurements and an estimated fillet weight that can be used with the Innova Yield system for automatic yield collection.

Dashboards

The Belly height difference component for the MS2730 filleting machine shows the running average of difference in height between the left and right bellies when the fish comes into the filleting machine. This is useful for optimizing the gutting process that takes place before the filleting machine.

For the QC Scanner, the Top N Rejects component shows the percentage of rejects by reject reason in a bar chart.Additionally, alarm dashboard components can be used for the MS2720 Deheader, MS2730 Filleting machine, and MS2920 QC scanner.

The Filleting overview report for the MS2730 filleting machine provides a production summary.

The Piece length distribution report for the MS2720 Deheader shows the distribution of the input products by length. This is useful for verifying that the lengths of the supplied raw materials are as expected.